Legionella and Mycobacterium populations exhibit geographic structuring across and within drinking water systems

Abstract Opportunistic pathogens (OPs) within the Legionella and Mycobacterium can persist and sometimes proliferate in drinking water systems and pose a risk to public health. Most prior research has focused on isolated system components of the drinking water treatment and distribution system and has rarely examined spatiotemporal dynamics across the entire source water, treatment process, and distribution system continuum. This study addresses this critical knowledge gap by quantitative profiling of microbial communities with full length 16S rRNA gene sequencing and flow cytometry, and associated water chemistry parameters, including disinfection byproducts (DBPs), across five full-scale utilities. These utilities reflect varying source water types, geographic locations, treatment regimes, and climate zones. Microbial communities, including Legionella and Mycobacterium populations, in distribution system were shaped by source water type and exhibited significant community divergence across utilities. Within the same genus, strain-level analyses revealed highly distinct Legionella and Mycobacterium sequence variants unique to each utility. Interestingly, a substantial proportion of Legionella and Mycobacterium amplicon sequence variants were both utility specific and often specific to locations within the distribution system, indicating strong geographic structuring both across and within drinking water systems. Understanding the mechanistic underpinnings of this geographic structuring is critical to develop robust strategies for managing and monitoring Legionella and Mycobacterium populations in drinking water systems.